What we do

We are an Irish Charity that was set up in 2000 in response to a worldwide humanitarian appeal to assist children living in an orphanage in eastern Europe. ORM's head office is based in Dublin and our work is carried out in the Republic of Moldova.

We work with children and young adults that have been abandoned or orphaned, children with disability and children with chronic and terminal illness. Currently we provide integrated, multidisciplinary programmes and support services for over 400 children in residential accommodation and temporary residential units.

Our work is very focussed and provides services in different geographical areas within Moldova, servicing mainly the Chisinau and Hincesti regions. ORM was founded after seeing first hand the horrendous conditions that children at Hincesti Orphanage lived in.

While many organisations, NGO's and religious networks choose only to work in the community where there are social structures and support networks in place to assist families and children in need, it became immediately obvious that children in Institutions were not counted, not recognised and not provided for. It was very apparent that children living in institutions were the forgotten children and this was widely publicised by the BBC documentary "Convoy to Moldova".

While community centres began to open their doors for the lucky handful of children at home with loving parents, thousands of children in institutions throughout Moldova had already lost their voice. It was very clear that these were the children in need. ORM believes that just because they were left in an institution does not mean that their lives are any less important or of any less value than those children out in the community.

Almost 10 years later we have seen great changes, their voice's while getting stronger, have still to be heard. ORM and all it's dedicated staff work 365 days a year, 24 hours a day with hundreds of children who have been simply discarded by all except the state.